In my mind, the best teacher is the example. A writing teacher should write, and I provide my own models for all my assignments. I have been teaching at RWU since 1991, and I have been a faculty writing tutor for almost as long. Besides RWU, I have taught college writing at RISD, URI, CCRI, UMass-Lowell, Cape Cod Community College, and the University of Arizona, where I earned a Master’s Degree in English with an emphasis on junior-college teaching. I earned a Bachelor’s Degree (emphasis on secondary education) from UConn.

Prior to working at RWU, I was a free-lance writer for various newspapers and magazines, and I worked in a resume-writing office, too. I sold a writing sample to textbook publisher/writer John Langan and wrote a book about citation formats (Cite Right) for RWU. I also wrote a “Peer Tutor Guide” for RWU’s Writing Center.

I was a founding member of RWU’s online writing courses, being the only writing teacher doing the online classes for the first several years. While keeping the online courses as clear and simple as possible, I offer a plethora of models, checklists, PowerPoints, etc. and use audio tactics, too, such as Panopto and Elluminate Live. Writing requires a process, and I give my students tips for strengthening all the steps that go into creating communicable papers. In class, I choose collaborative lesson plans whenever possible; in fact, one of my favorite student evaluations said, “I didn’t have just one teacher; I had twenty.” Whenever possible, too (such as in Critical Writing), I like to create “fun” assignments because when students are engaged, they are learning.